Do you go through the trouble of boiling your water during an emergency?

The area where I live has a major, ongoing water issue, and they've issued an advisory that all water for consumption be boiled beforehand. No using filtered water from the refrigerator, and residents were instructed to throw away ice cubes.

Now they're even advising that we rinse hand-washed dishes for a minute in a diluted bleach solution (one tablespoon of household bleach per gallon of tap water).

I'm willing to boil all the water necessary, but eating off dishes that have remnants of bleach?

How much of this is for actual public safety, and how much of it is just CYA legal requirement?

Do you go through the trouble of boiling your water during an emergency?

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Answers (private voting - your screen name will NOT appear in the results):

Yes, I boil ALL of it, even for bathing.

Yes, I boil all water for cooking/consumption.

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Yes, I boil most of it, though I'll still drink water from my Brita/PUR/other filter.

This has rarely happened, but we stick to bottled water for the most part. Also, depending on the type of well it is, a few of my friends have well water, and so long as it wasn't part of the alert, my friends are always willing to share some of their well water with us for things like doing dishes and showering

After having lived through hurricanes and broken water mains, I say it's best to not risk your health. We once had brain-eating bacteria in a local pond which killed just about anyone who swam in it. Lovely way to die, eh?

After having lived through hurricanes and broken water mains, I say it's best to not risk your health. We once had brain-eating bacteria in a local pond which killed just about anyone who swam in it.
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The bleach is safer than the bacteria.

After having lived through hurricanes and broken water mains, I say it's best to not risk your health. We once had brain-eating bacteria in a local pond which killed just about anyone who swam in it. Lovely way to die, eh?

Eek! I recall reading a news story (found it!) about a girl who died after a swimming in Florida, and it was eventually traced back to a waterborne parasite.

They're telling residents here we can bathe, just to not swallow any of the water.

The area where I live has a major, ongoing water issue, and they've issued an advisory that all water for consumption be boiled beforehand. No using filtered water from the refrigerator, and residents were instructed to throw away ice
...

The area where I live has a major, ongoing water issue, and they've issued an advisory that all water for consumption be boiled beforehand. No using filtered water from the refrigerator, and residents were instructed to throw away ice cubes.

Now they're even advising that we rinse hand-washed dishes for a minute in a diluted bleach solution (one tablespoon of household bleach per gallon of tap water).

I'm willing to boil all the water necessary, but eating off dishes that have remnants of bleach?

How much of this is for actual public safety, and how much of it is just CYA legal requirement?

Do you go through the trouble of boiling your water during an emergency?

Hey!!! That sounds like how I wash my dishes here at home!!! Been doing it for ten years now.

When it comes to my dishes, I fill the sink with water, add my soap as usual, then I add in my bleach directly into the soap. Then I know my dishes are properly squeaky clean. Then I rinse dishes in a bucket with a milder bleach solution, and then? I have a bucket filled with bottled water to swish everything through then I allow to air dry.

It seems a little excessive I know, but I have found for me, that if I do not do this, then I get bleach blisters on my lips.

What you need to be careful on, is if they tell you that you cannot brush your teeth with this water. For if you cannot brush your teeth with your water, why are you washing clothes in it or bathing in this water?

When it comes to having boiling water, what we do here is; we buy very large- we they are just giant buckets. Foreigners would call them rubbish bins, but rubbish bins are blue. These are red. But a large rubbermaid tote box would work too. We boil large quantities of water, let it cool for a bit, then pour the water into these bins. It takes a fair amount of time, but this way we have easy access to a large amount of drinking water. One bin usually lasts for about a day for a normal household for cooking, drinking, and human needs.

After having lived through hurricanes and broken water mains, I say it's best to not risk your health. We once had brain-eating bacteria in a local pond which killed just about anyone who swam in it.
...

The bleach is safer than the bacteria.

After having lived through hurricanes and broken water mains, I say it's best to not risk your health. We once had brain-eating bacteria in a local pond which killed just about anyone who swam in it. Lovely way to die, eh?

I don't even normally drink water from the faucet because I'm so sensitive to chemicals and bacterias.. I sure wouldn't if there was an emergency. There's bottled water for that.

Our refrigerator filters water, but emergency services is warning that it's not enough to be considered "safe." We're using bottled water right now but my eco-friendly soul is convulsing over all the plastic. It's a lose-lose situation, right in time for July 4th.

We have emergencies here a lot that require this. We stock up on bottled water for times like these. If we run out, then yes we boil the water. I would just use paper plates for the time being because I have a bleach intolerance. There's no way I'm eating off a bleached dish. Who knows what my insides would do. I'm also not gonna eat off a dish that could harbor some crazy parasite either. Paper it is then.

The area where I live has a major, ongoing water issue, and they've issued an advisory that all water for consumption be boiled beforehand. No using filtered water from the refrigerator, and residents were instructed to throw away ice
...

The area where I live has a major, ongoing water issue, and they've issued an advisory that all water for consumption be boiled beforehand. No using filtered water from the refrigerator, and residents were instructed to throw away ice cubes.

Now they're even advising that we rinse hand-washed dishes for a minute in a diluted bleach solution (one tablespoon of household bleach per gallon of tap water).

I'm willing to boil all the water necessary, but eating off dishes that have remnants of bleach?

How much of this is for actual public safety, and how much of it is just CYA legal requirement?

Do you go through the trouble of boiling your water during an emergency?

Normally we have bottled water on hand in the event of hurricanes where I live, but in the event that we haven't had bottled water, we have boiled it. In the event of power outages...well that's another matter entirely. haha